Residents Strategize Approach to Massive Development with Encouragement from Elected Officials

By Andy Katz

Special to the Brooklyn Eagle

The Cobble Hill Association met with NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Councilmember Brad Lander and state Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon at the Cobble Hill Health Center. On everyone’s mind at the Nov. 28 meeting were the potentially harmful effects of the new housing construction that is expected to add more than 1,000 units to one of Brooklyn’s smallest and oldest neighborhoods.

Of particular concern is the ongoing struggle between Fortis Property Group’s transformation of the lamented Long Island College Hospital into a series of market-rate developments called River Park. As currently envisioned, River Park will consist of seven properties. Some will be adapted from existing structures, while others will consist of entirely new ones.

“What happens to the foundation of a 150-year-old brownstone when you dig down 50 or 60 feet right alongside it?” asked Cobble Hill Association President Amy Breedlove after the meeting.

“Then you have businesses which have been in place for most of the past century,” added Association member Mary Stanton. “Such as Sahadi’s … will they endure all of the interference this work brings?”

Comprising a mere 40 blocks, most of Cobble Hill’s brownstones were in place by 1860. In 1876, philanthropist Alfred Tedway White built some of the first housing projects to serve as affordable housing for workers. Many homes there are designated historical landmarks, leaving tenants and owners limited in changes they’re permitted to make.

At least since the closing of LICH in 2014, developer and residents have contended, often acrimoniously, over the future of the former LICH site as well as development in Brooklyn Bridge Park and other portions of the neighborhoods. Residents argue that their community lacks infrastructure in the form of schools, parking, health care providers, streets and public transportation to absorb the additional population ambitious new developments would inevitably draw.

Not being late to work and putting out fires in a timely manner transcend mere quality of life issues, yet even CHA’s neighbor association in Brooklyn Heights drew the NIMBY label from several local news publications after Heights’s resident and distinguished CUNY professor Sheldon Weinbaum expressed concern over the lack of bedrock and quality of soil that underlies the site for the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Pier 6 Tower. Weinberg and his allies, alleged Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and their allies, simply didn’t want their view obstructed.

Elected officials avoided that kind of condescension to their Cobble Hill constituents.

“This is what we’re going to have to double down and focus on,” Stringer told the Association. “So that whatever gets built here has your input. What has been missing over the past four years — or even longer — is community input.”

After agreeing to the formation of an expert task force that would oversee developers’ plans before they were enacted, with an eye toward building safety and community impact, Stringer reminded the audience that they need not wait on City Hall for expertise.

“You’d be surprised,” Stringer went on, “how your next door neighbor has done environmental law, or somebody’s who’s a great engineer … or understands water flow.”

“DOB [Department of Buildings] is really more specifically responsible for holding Fortis’s feet to the fire and monitoring Fortis’s actions,” Brad Lander explained. “DOT [Department of Transportation] has a lot to do, but I’m confident we can get together and work together. This is something we all want to do together … this is something we all have to take responsibility for, and I know we can.”